Perfect Paradises Within Digital Dreams
by Sapharus
Summary: After the events that occurred on Jabberwock Island, Hinata finds himself working with the Future Foundation in an attempt to bring back his lost friends, especially one in particular. During the day, he helps with restoring the New World Program's lost data, but at night, he becomes ensnared in a series of dreams, filled with knowledge that could potentially save everyone...
1. Prologue: Always Move Forward

Hope's Peak Academy. It was one of the most prestigious schools in the country - No, perhaps, even, the entire world - where the elite, formally-invited "Super High School Level" students roamed its lush campuses in peace, knowing that graduating from here would forever secure them a permanent life of success and happiness in any field.

However... That is not what truly happened. No, during my time of attendance there, I, my friends, classmates, teachers, researchers, _everyone, _became involved in something much greater than we were expecting.

Within the span of a few short years? Countless people, slaughtered by my hands. Entire cities and countries falling into ruin; from corruption on the inside and utter chaos on the outside. The world as it was once known, ended; crushed into oblivion by the gaping maw of despair. As the situation reached its climax, what was left of the world's hope, once shining brightly, flickered and died; This was demonstrated in a sick and twisted game known as the School Life of Mutual Killing, where the remaining Hope's Peak students were forced into killing each other, televised live 24/7 and orchestrated by the mastermind themself...

The mastermind, who could very easily be considered the sole person that started it all and brought the world to its knees...

Her title, Super High School Level Despair. Her name, Junko Enoshima. Eventually, she was defeated... beaten at her own game of mutual killing by the very same students she had manipulated, and on that day the surviving few proved that hope springs eternal: that it never dies, even under the worst of odds...

But, before that... before the School Life of Mutual Killing, but after I had walked through Hope's Peak's gates for the first time... we were comrades.

Or, at least, that was what I've been told. I can't remember any of it, thanks to something called the New World Program, but... I think that's for the best. I wouldn't want to remember the kind of horrific monster I had been coerced by Junko into becoming, or the terrifying deeds I had done while still under her influence. The New World Program, created by the Future Foundation's Hope Rehabilitation Project... without it, I possibly wouldn't even be alive right now.

The program was only supposed to erase our old memories, of when we were SHSL Despair. We were the greatest of Junko's pawns, complety enthralled by her, blinded and consumed by despair. The program would erase those memories and replace them, so we could have a chance of being normal again. But it was a rushed job, highly experimental and not even fully tested... and that was its undoing.

The undoing that would replace the old horrors with ones of a different kind, because Despair herself had found a way in and had taken over, and forced her to play her game. Her game... of mutual killing. And one by one, I watched my friends, the recovering ex-SHSL Despair, die... Except, I learned that they were not dead, but maybe even something worse.

As we confronted the remnants of walking despair, an AI replica of Junko Enoshima, we found out that due to the haphazard way that the New World Program was built, that the system did not know what to do in the originally-unexpected circumstance of a student (or rather, their avatar) dying within the game. Due to this, a dead student could not return to the real world once the game world's purpose has been served, but they also no longer existed within the game world itself, which stuck their physical bodies in a sort of vegatative state. Their minds? We don't know. They could be gone forever, stuck in a space between reality and the system. It's hard telling.

However, of all of the people slain on the virtual Jabberwock Island, two did not receive this cruel fate, and were erased from existence entirely. And while they were both my friends, just like all of the other students, one of them in particular was very special to me...

She... meant a lot to me. Not only for always being there for me, but also for always trying her best to help everyone, even when things looked dark, and going as far as sacrificing herself to save everyone not just once, but twice... If it weren't for her actions, I, along with everyone else trapped within Junko's Field Trip of Mutual Killing would either still be there now, or worse, the minds and bodies of everyone killed inside this place would have been overridden with Junko's personality. Despair, reborn again, would roam as it wished and destroy everything the Future Foundation had been trying to create and preserve.

Because of her, I discovered that there are never fixed options, and as long as I keep moving forward, I can bring myself to any outcome I desire... I was shown only two options, but through her guidance and the assistance of Makoto Naegi, Byakuya Togami, and Kyouko Kirigiri, surviving Hope's Peak students and members of the Future Foundation that risked their lives by entering the game to help us, we were able to escape, thwarting AI Junko's plans and ensuring that no more lives needed to be taken.

After the aftermath of the trial, we had deemed the game to be no longer a safe place to stay, as Junko's meddling had done severe damage to the program. We needed to leave immediately. The Jabberwock Island I had come to known for the past few eventful weeks was crumbling apart, before my eyes. Even if we didn't have to leave, we were ready, and so we needed to move on, into our new lives.

But as we were preparing to depart, I kept thinking to myself. I was there for the execution. I watched her die, unable to do anything to help. But... even though she was gone, she still managed to appear before me when I needed her the most. (Or was that a dream?) And not only that, Usami had appeared to deal the finishing blow to Junko. Could the both of them still be alive? More importantly, was _she _okay?

Her name... it was Chiaki Nanami...

I want to... know if she really is still alive. And if she is, I want to express my gratitude to her...

A simple "Thank you" isn't nearly enough. I want to show her the world she had so valiantly shielded from despair. I want her to see it, and experience it, and live it...

No matter how impossible such a task like that may seem, I want for it to be true. All that is left is for me to move torward it.

Nanami... please be safe.


	2. 1: The Day it All Began

_Beep-beep. Beep-beep. Beep-beep. Beep-beep._

...

...Was it really morning already? Slowly waking up, I stirred about in a half-awake stupor, stretching my body, breaking free of the grip sleep had on me.

_Be-be-be-beep. Be-be-be-beep. Be-be-be-beep. Be-be-be-beep._

I yawned. It's been about a month, but I'm still re-adjusting to this body. Even if I had only been inside the New World Program for a few weeks, it felt like longer... Even if the age gap between the body I had during my stay at Jabberwock and my actual one is a couple of years, it's enough to throw me off so much that I'm a bit clumsy sometimes.

_Be-be-be-beep! Be-be-be-beep! Be-be-be-beep! Be-be-be-beep!_

My room was dimly lit, as the sun was starting to rise. Rolling over, I took a look at the ringing alarm clock sitting on the bedside endtable, the red digital display glowing as if it were angry. 7:00 AM, the same time I was woken up every morning by Monokuma while on the island... I didn't have to wake up this early anymore, of course, but it'd feel strange if I didn't. Real of not, and regardless of how much time I spent there, it was still my home for even a little while, an-

_BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP-click. _My hand rested on top of the alarm clock. Silence.

...I probably should have turned that off earlier. Ah, whatever.

The other things on the table were a plain leather-bound notebook and a pen, both of which I picked up as I sat up in bed and flicked on a lamp. Flipping the book open, I leafed through the pages. Most were empty, but the first few I had written on. Every page was laid out the same way: first with the date of entry, followed by the entry itself. Every entry was the same, consisting of a single word:

"Nothing"

I opened to the first blank page, dated it, and wrote the entry. "Nothing," just like the others. I closed the book with a sigh and placed it back on the table. And with that, I got out of bed, got dressed, and left the room, ready for the day ahead.

Closing the door behind me with a quiet click, I found myself standing at the far north end of the hall on the third floor of the Future Foundation's building, which had the living quarters of everyone living here, including the surviving students and myself. Starting from this end of the hall, there was my room, Kuzuryuu's, Owari's, Souda's, and Sonia's, and on the other side of the hall were Naegi's, Kirigiri's, Asahina's, Hagakure's, Togami's, and Fukawa's rooms. There was also a staircase leading down, as well as a hall leading to the rest of the floor, which was just another staircase, elevators, and the quarters for the rest of the Future Foundation staff that lived in the building. I took the stairs.

The second floor was the main living space, consisting mainly of a kitchen, a library, and an open, spacious lounge. There was even a section of wall that had been replaced with floor-to-ceiling length panes of glass, which let in a lot of light and showed off a view consisting of a sea of trees. It's not a bad view, but it only made me think. Where was this place? I wasn't even sure. I decided I wanted to ask about it, so I went into the kitchen to see if someone was around.

The kitchen was empty, but it was obvious someone had been in there recently. The coffee maker was on, with the pot nearly full. Then again, I was fairly sure I had never seen the coffee maker off... Even though I hadn't been here for a long time, the researchers working at the Future Foundation always seemed to be busy. It was like some of them never even slept. I continued wondering about the sleeping habits of the people living around here as I filled a mug with coffee and prepared a slice of toast, then went to sit down at one of the tables in the lounge, mug and toast in hand.

It wasn't long before I heard someone behind me. "Is that all you're having for breakfast, Hinata-kun?"

"Hm?" I turned around. It was Naegi. "Oh, Naegi-san." I paused, looking down at my drink. "...Yeah, this is all I'm having. I didn't feel like making anything extravagant," I said, sheepishly.

Naegi sat down at my table, across from me. "I see."

I took a moment to look out the window, then went ahead and got straight to the point. "...Hey, Naegi."

"Yes?"

"Where are we? Like, this building. No one's told me, and I wanted to know."

He didn't even hesitate at all in his reply. "I can't disclose that to you for safety reasons!"

I quietly slammed my fist into the table. "What?! 'Safety reasons?' What reasons?"

"Uhh, well... So people can't leave! But mostly so people can't find the building. Even though the New World Program (kind of) worked, some people are still pretty upset that Super High School Level Despair is still out there. The location of this facility is pretty secret." He had lowered his voice when he said "kind of," which made me frown slightly. He noticed. "...Oh. Uhm."

I didn't say anything, and took a drink from my coffee. It looked like he was trying to find the right thing to say. It... reminded me of _her, _a little. Regardless, I let him take all the time he needed.

After a minute or two, he spoke. "...I'm really sorry about your friends. I lost a lot of people I was really close to, as well. But... this time, the circumstances are different, seeing as they're not... really... dead...? T-they're just sleeping... right?"

...

...Did he just choke up? I'm not sure if I imagined it, or the pain in his voice...

He continued. "I'm determined that they _can_ be brought back. I don't want anyone else to needlessly die! It isn't right..." Any pain I may have once heard in his tone was gone, replaced with a warm, affirming confidence. "There _has _to be a way to do it, I just know so. And I think if everyone works together, I'm sure it can be found. As long as we don't lose hope, we can't give up!"

Finished with his speech, Naegi's eyes seemed to glow from within, as if lit by some arcane fire. That kid... he was a spectacle, no doubt. The sheer determination he was radiating felt as if it were palpable, just rolling off of his body in waves. It was getting me worked up a bit, too. I saw why some people called him "Super High School Hope..." It's a very fitting title. I felt like I could be ready to tackle anything with him at my side. I bet he'd be one hell of a motivational speaker.

We talked for a little while longer, but soon he had realized he was going to be nearly late to some meeting his superiors had set up. I didn't ask for details. We shook hands as I bid him farewell and watched him hurry off. After he was gone, I finished what was left of my coffee, lukewarm at this point, and returned the mug. I spent a good portion of the day quietly reading, and returned to my room in the evening.

Having entered my room for the night, I locked the door, and took a shower. Changed into something more appropriate for bed. Then, I sat down at the desk that was in my room, and turned on the laptop. Like everything else, it was issued to me by the Future Foundation, and I could use it as I saw fit. And I used it to check up on the situation in the basement levels, when I didn't feel like going down there myself.

I started up one of the programs, and moments later, Alter Ego's image took up most of the screen. "Is that you, Hinata-kun? Is it already that time of day?"

A dialog box popped up, which I typed a response into, lightly tapping the Enter key when I was finished. "That's right. Please tell me how things are going with recovering information from the New World Program."

"W-well, it's all a mess... It's like a big puzzle. There's a lot of garbled data that we can't make much sense of, and a lot of things just seem to be missing entirely... Junko's AI did a lot of damage, and it's very worrying... But we have managed to recover most of the location data. A-as in, what the replica of Jabberwock Island was like."

So no major discoveries? I sighed, before typing out a new question. "I see... What about the students? Have you found any of the... erm... data that made up their personalities, their memories?"

"N-nothing so far, I'm afraid... Like I said, a lot of the data has been very badly corrupted, or too hard to find without some sort of preliminary information. It's kind of like trying to search for something, but you don't know what you're looking for in the first place, if that makes sense?"

I nodded. "All right. That's enough for now."

"Do you need anything else?"

Anything else...? Oh, that reminds me. "This is one thing. Do you remember what we talked about the other day? About Chiaki?"

The image of Alter Ego slowly nodded-on screen. "Yes."

"Do you think it's possible?"

There was a long pause. "I don't see why it couldn't be. She was clever; I don't think she would have let things happen as they did without some sort of data back-up. Being an AI and not having at least _one _copy of yourself hidden around somewhere is just risky business!" Another pause. "I think I know that well enough... and I think that Naegi would possibly agree, as well."

...Naegi? What does he have to do with this? I wanted to ask, but I decided it wasn't my business. "But would Junko have found it, if it even exists?"

"I don't know... I'm sorry." Pause. "There could be a few outcomes to this. Either she never created a copy of herself, Junko found it and destroyed it, or she hid it well enough that it's somewhere really deep in the program. Only time will tell."

My spirits were raised, then lowered once again. "That's about it, right?"

"That's all I can think of. I don't know everything."

With this new information, I had a new question. "Lastly, if this theoretical copy was around, would it remember everything?"

"As in, everything before and after its creation?"

"Correct."

"AIs are strange... I don't even know how they work, and I'm one, myself... But it would appear that the knowledge and memory of AIs does sync between copies. So, even if this theoretical copy was created a long time in advance, it would know everything that went on, yes. ...Anything else?"

I was out of questions. Rather, I had plenty of questions, but none of them seemed appropriate to ask. "No, that's all. Thank you." Alter Ego wished me a good night, and I shut off the laptop, and got into bed.

Staring at the ceiling, thoughts were racing through my head. The possibility that she was still alive somewhere... it was tantalizing. But, I thought back to that trial, the very last one. That place I saw her, where we spoke... was it real? Or was it some thought, or a glitch? That whole trial... it was confusing. But I managed to survive it, along with everyone else. Additionally, what was Alter Ego speaking about, when mentioning Naegi? Is there some sort of past there? I didn't know. I couldn't think about it much longer. I was tired... I needed to rest.

I closed my eyes. I invited sleep, let it take control...

And for the first time since leaving the island behind, I had a dream.


	3. 2 The Night it All Began

It was a nice autumn afternoon. The sun was beginning to set, and I was walking briskly down a path. As it were, I wasn't taking a simple stroll through some park, but was moving with ambition, walking to a meeting point. Not before long, I found myself standing before it... A school, known solely as "Hope's Peak Academy."

Stopping in front of the imposing black gates that barred entry, I pulled my phone out of my pocket, screen flicking to life. Was this even the right place? I checked my message inbox, and read the most recent thing sent to me.

Unknown name, unknown number. "Please meet me in the entrance hall of Hope's Peak Academy. I need to speak with you there." So this was the correct place. The entrance hall would be easy enough to find, but... How do I get past these gates? They didn't seem like they were opening any time soon.

I paced in front of the gate several times, then took a few steps back and sat down on the ground with an irritated sigh. Being alone, I just started musing to myself out loud. "Why am I even here? It's not like I can even get past this shitty gate!" This whole situation was just irritating. I didn't know who wanted to meet with me, and...

...Wait. How did I even get here? I couldn't remember. Suddenly, everything seemed suspicious, but... nothing felt particularly dangerous. I had too many questions and not enough answers, but I knew I could turn back at any time. I certainly wasn't being forced to be here, yet it felt as if I didn't really have a choice... If I were to speak with that person inside, I would find answers. As if noticed by the divine, I was given an answer early as my phone alerted me of a new message.

Unknown name, unknown number, although it was still the same person from before. "Are you stumped, Hinata-kun? I wasn't expecting you to have trouble solving this puzzle!" Even though I knew it was sent from the same person, the tone of the message was drastically different. It seemed like they knew me, at least, but... is this a friendly tease? How well did I know this person? I suppose I would find out.

The message continued. "You see, this gate has a secret! I noticed it on my way here. If you examine it closely, you will find that it has issues with clipping, and should be able to pass it freely. I'll be waiting for you on the inside..." Turning the phone's screen off, I stood up, and approached the gate again.

Clipping... I'm not sure what that meant. Or did I? Either way, I was told I could get past this gate, so being in the dark on something like that wasn't a problem. However, I was still apprehensive... I didn't know if this was a trap. But I still needed to try.

Inching closer to the gate, I reached my hands out to the bars, hoping that it would open. And stared in shock as my hands passed through the bars as if they weren't even there. I quickly pulled my hands back. Just what was even happening? Wanting to test further, I tried to kick the gate, and ended up nearly falling over from not connecting with anything solid. It was official; that gate did not exist, or I was crazy. Maybe both? Dismissing the thoughts as being silly, I walked through the gate and continued forward to the main doors of Hope's Peak Academy, entering them.

It took my eyes a few moments to adjust from the outside, but it was easy to see that I wasn't in the entrance hall of Hope's Peak at all. Instead, I was in a dimly-lit corridor, with a sheet of paper tacked to the left wall. It was too dark to see the other end of the hall clearly, but... I thought I could make out a door. Moving up to the paper, I looked closer at it, reading the hastily-scrawled message:

"Just go to the other end of this hall and take the elevator down. I'm waiting for you." Walking through the hall, I began to think. An elevator? Even though I was positive it wasn't going to lead to that place, the thought of boarding one once again made me uneasy. Hell, I even avoided elevators as much as possible, opting to take the stairs. I sighed. Well, it's not like I have much of a choice right now...

Finding the control panel, I pressed the button, and the doors opened. After stepping in, the doors closed quickly behind me, and the elevator began to descend on its own. What felt like hours passed, yet the elevator never seemed to cease its descent, making me wonder just where it was taking me. Bored, I spent some time looking around but there wasn't a whole lot to look at. However, I had finally noticed that this elevator looked just like... that other one...

I slumped down, sliding down a wall until I was on the floor, looking directly at the elevator's doors. I remember it all too well. Enter the elevator. Hold a trial nobody asked for. Witness the execution, equally cruel and bizarre. Then enter the elevator once again, with one less person in our ranks... All while trying to make sense of what we had witnessed... Wishing for it all to stop, all the while knowing and denying that the trials would continue happening.

Here I was, in an elevator, much like that one. But this time, I was entirely alone. Just what was I going to find at the end of this ride? I'm not even sure if I wanted to know now. But it was too late for that. I spent the next few minutes crouched down on the elevator's floor in silence, contemplating the fate I had walked so blindly into, but then something changed in the elevator. It was slowing down, and shortly after came to a complete stop with a _clunk. _I pulled myself off of the floor slowly, working my way to stand in front of the door. The elevator interior had no buttons, so I had to wait for the door to open on its own.

"Well," I breathed, "this is it."

_Ding._ The doors began to open, and once they were open completely, I stepped out of the elevator, and the doors snapped shut behind me once again. As I turned around to view the elevator, I noticed that it wasn't there. Instead, I was staring at the door of the beach house, from the second island. At that point, things started to make sense, and I pieced together the answer I was looking for the most.

The reason things were being strange, why I couldn't remember how I got here... It was because I was dreaming.

Everything I've witnessed since I got here was just a part of the dream. Regardless of that information, I still had someone to meet, so I turned back around to face the beach.

The sun had set but it wasn't yet night, leaving the sky a medium blue. I couldn't see the moon. The remaining light left in the sky bounced off of the gentle waves of the ocean, while stars glittered above. It was just as beautiful as I remembered. On the beach, I saw her, and decided to sit down next to her. She was watching the waves, never taking her eyes off of them, and I did the same. I didn't mind if it was a dream; in that moment it was just the two of us, watching the ocean in silence.

After a while, I broke the silence. I kept watching the ocean as I spoke. "So... it was you that asked me here."

She hesitated, following it up with a small nod. "Yes."

"That's what I thought. So... clipping? What does that mean?"

She wounded a bit annoyed. "...I told you before, don't you remember?" She laughed. "Well, of course you remember, but maybe it was too deep in your mind for you to recall. It's when an object, like in a game, isn't capable of colliding with anything of the barriers applied to it are missing, usually from an error. So other things can overlap with or even pass through them, like it's not there. Sometimes people find sections of walls and ceilings that they can clip through, effectively going off of the map and out of bounds."

I frowned. "I suppose that makes sense, but... that part about my mind? You're... not really Nanami, are you?" I already knew she couldn't possibly be, but I had to ask.

"Ah... No, I'm not her, but you knew that. I'm just a part of your mind, I suppose, but I decided to look like someone you were comfortable with." She finally turned to me, and I noticed that her eyes were different; they instead looked just like mine. There was no doubt now that it wasn't her... "There's nothing wrong with that, aye?"

I looked back to the ocean again. "I... I suppose not," I said. So... I was talking to myself? As strange as it was, it probably wasn't the strangest thing that I've experienced, so I decided to roll with it. "With that out of the way, I want to know what you wanted from me."

"Very well." Removing her bag from her back, she opened and rummaged through it, producing a notebook not unlike the one in my room. "This is your subconscious speaking. That book you're writing in every morning's a dream journal yeah? Well, I noticed."

"Took you long enough," I mumbled.

She rolled her eyes at the comment, slightly angered by my comment. "Right. Well. I know that you only started keeping that damn thing because you read a book in that library that told you that sometimes your dreams will help you solve your problems. And what problem do you have right now?"

I can't believe it. I'm being babied by my own self! This is so stupid. "Well, all of my friends are sort of dead, so there's that..."

Eyes lighting up, she clapped. "Yes! That's the one! Good job, Hajime! So I, your awe-inspiring (if I say so myself) subconscious, am here to point you in the right direction, but just this once. After that, POOF! You won't hear from me again so directly, so you better write down everything you remember from that little head of yours when you wake up." She tossed the notebook into my lap, as if to solidify the point.

I... wasn't like this to other people, was I? I really hope not, because this conversation felt like it was driving me insane. "All right, so then tell me."

Suddenly, the attitude stopped, and her tone grew serious. "Remember that this is everything you already know. It's just things you hadn't quite consciously realized, so it's not like I can tell you anything you wanna hear." I nodded, and she continued. "You suspect your special friend here," saying while pointing to herself, "probably isn't gone for good. Well, you think the same could apply to everyone else, too, in a way. But the easiest way to recover info is to have similar info you can compare it to, and that's where you're stumped. That's about all I can say."

What I had been told made sense, so I could believe it. Nothing else she said before was false, either, so maybe she couldn't lie? I dismissed the irrelevant thoughts to speak. "Is that everything, then? I understand."

Brushing a hand through her hair, she stated, "That's everything." She turned her own body entirely to face mine. "And now that my job is done, I'm afraid you need to wake up," she whispered.

I wasn't expecting her to punch me in the face after that, but she did. My senses were dimming, and I heard her call "I'm sorry for that" before the world went dark.


End file.
